Egyptologists discover first royal tomb in a century

Egyptologists have discovered the first royal tomb in a century.

A British-Egyptian team located the tomb of Pharoah Thutmose II in the Western Valleys of the Theban Necropolis, near Luxor. It is 2.4 kilometres from the famous Valley of the Kings.

This was the last undiscovered royal tomb from the royal dynasty in the 18th century. The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities identified the poorly preserved tomb as “Tomb C4.”

Dr Piers Litherland, the field director of the mission, told BBC Newshour: “Part of the ceiling was still intact: a blue-painted ceiling with yellow stars on it. And blue-painted ceilings with yellow stars are only found in kings’ tombs.

He added: “The emotion of getting into these things is just one of extraordinary bewilderment because when you come across something you’re not expecting to find, it’s emotionally extremely turbulent really. ”

When the tomb was uncovered in 2022, archaeologists believed it belonged to one of the wives of a king, as it was located near the tombs of Hatshepsut (Thutmose II’s half-sister/wife) and Thutmose III’s wives. The Supreme Council of Antiquities and the New Kingdom Research Foundation joint team discovered over the past two years that it actually belonged to Thutmose II.

New discoveries have also led to the belief that Hatshepsut oversaw his burial.

Litherland said: “It does not, so far, tell us much about his life. However, it does tell us that he was buried by Hatshepsut and not by his son, the infant Thutmose III. It was the duty of Kings to bury their predecessors.”

Thutmose II’s mummy was discovered in the 19th century at a different archaeological site, Deir el-Bahari Cachette.

The last royal tomb discovered was that of King Tut in 1922.

Thutmose II reigned in Ancient Egypt somewhere between 2000 and 1001 BC. Little is known about the ruler, and there is much debate regarding the years he sat on the throne.